Of Rain and Thunderstorms
by FireSaturn
Summary: Amber Weathers, the sister of Sapphire Sky, comes to Radiator Springs by an accident that happened on Route 66. She finds new friends there and is happy, yet someone seeks to ruin her life.
1. Chapter 1

**Of Rain and Thunderstorms**

by Firebird (FireSaturn)

DISCLAIMER: Cars, it plot, setting, and characters are not mine, but belongs to Pixar Disney. Sapphire Sky and Amber Weathers are my characters and property.

**CHAPTER ONE**

She weaved inbetween other cars trying to get away from those four delinquents who were chasing her. The other motorists blared their horns at her, but she ignored them and kept driving. Now if she could find a way to escape the highway, the young Pontiac Trans Am's fear would be put to rest.

Getting between two semis, Amber hoped that the delinquents would pass her by, but it was not going to happen. A neon green and purple Nissan Silvia with a ladderlike spoiler and with what looked like spikes around his tires, pulled up beside her. He snapped on his lights, shining them in Amber's face.

"Hey, Boost," he called to the leader of Delinquents, "I found her."

A purple Mistubishi Eclipse roared up, chuckling with delight when he saw Amber in the glare of the Wingo's lights. Amber now felt trapped with nowhere to run. But then she saw an exit coming up and decided to take a chance. She whipped out from between the semis and sped into the exit.

"After her!" shouted Boost as he sped after his query.

The other three Delinquents sped after the dark red Trans Am, following her onto the exit. Since there were few cars on the small road in the nighttime, none of them had any trouble keeping up with Amber. Oh, she was fast, but not as fast as Boost. Soon the Eclipse was only a few yards away from the Trans-Am's back bumper.

The chase flew down the road, untimately past the billboard where a 1949 Mercury Cruiser was sleeping. The speeding cars woke him up instantly. He turned on his siren and flashed his lights and sped after the racing vehicles.

Meanwhile, Boost had gotten up beside Amber. Then he slammed into her, sending the dark red Trans Am spinning into a ditch. She groaned painfully. Boost sped by laughing, followed by DJ, Wingo, and Snot Rod, whose sudden sneeze gave him a boost of speed and scattered the others.

"It's the Sheriff!" Wingo shouted when he heard the wailing sirens and flashing lights approach.

"Move!" Boost ordered and the Delinquent Road Hazards fled the scene of the accident that they had caused on Route 66.

When Sheriff pulled up puffing to where Amber had crashed, he was aghast. The Trans Am was badly damaged, sporting a big dent in her left side and a crushed fender.

"Don't you worry, young lady," Sheriff told the injured car, hoping that she was still conscious and could hear him, "I'll be back quickly with help."

True to his word, Sheriff came back with a rusty tow truck and a blue '51 Hudson Hornet. The tow truck, named Tow Mater, gently lifted the Trans-Am up out of the ditch and back onto the road. The Hornet looked her over.

"Get her to my clinic, Mater," said the Hornet, "She needs medical attention as soon as possible."

"Okey, Dokey," replied Mater.

The three cars headed back to the town called Radiator Springs with the damaged Trans Am in tow. At Flo's V8 Cafe, the other residents watched as they came in and headed straight toward Doc Hudson's clinic. They followed the trio and gathered in the front entrance, wondering what was going on inside and who was the injured Trans Am that had been brought in.

"Ooooh..."

Amber woke up to find herself up on a lift in a doctor's office. She panicked, thinking that she had been caught by the Delinquents.

"Calm down," a gruff voice penetrated her thoughts, "You're out of danger now."

"Who are you?" Amber asked when she saw an old Hudson Hornet looking up at her.

"Doc Hudson," said the Hornet, "Now would you mind telling me your name?"

"Let me down first," answered Amber, who couldn't stand being up on the lift anymore and wanted to have her tires on the pavement again. She felt helpless and vulnerable.

The lift drifted down until it touched the floor. Amber drove off it warily.

"Now, your name, please, young lady," said Doc Hudson.

"Amber," the Trans Am replied, "Amber Weathers."

Doc's eyelids lifted a little. _Was she related to Strip Weathers and Sapphire Sky?_ he thought. "Weathers, eh? I have heard of that name before," said Doc in a thoughtful voice.

"You know my father and sister?" asked Amber.

Doc nodded, "Yes, I know your father and sister."

"How?"

"Not now. You need to rest," Doc told Amber, "You've been in crash and I want to make sure that you're going to be alright."

As Amber rolled out of the clinic with Doc, she saw the other residents of the town gathered around the entrance waiting. She rolled closer to the Hornet, as if for protection.

"Doc?" she asked.

"It's okay, Amber," he told her, "These are nice folk. They won't hurt you. They will protect you if necessary. Excuse us, please."

The residents parted to let Doc and Amber through. He led her to the Cozy Cone where Sally Carrera, the proprietor of the motel, gave her one of the caution cone hotel rooms to spend the night in, free of charge. Amber thought that Sally was nice, but noticed a red racecar sitting beside the Porshe. The Trans Am wondered who he was, then the memory came to her. She turned to the racecar.

"Hey, you're Lightning McQueen, aren't you?" she asked him.

"Yeah," ackowledged the racecar.

"I heard that you pushed The King across the finish line," she said, smiling.

"Yeah, I did," replied Lightning.

"That was awesome," beamed Amber.

"It was the right thing to do," answered Lightning.

"You've got Cone Number 2," said Sally.

Amber found her cone and went in. It looked nice inside. She was suddenly feeling very tired and turned to look at the crowd outside. She smiled at them.

"Thanks," she said, "I'll talk to you all in the morning. Goodnight."

**To be continued...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Of Rain and Thunderstorms**  
by Firebird (FireSaturn)

DISCLAIMER: Cars, it plot, setting, and characters are not mine, but belongs to Pixar Disney. Sapphire Sky and Amber Weathers are my characters and property.

**CHAPTER TWO**

Strip Weathers and his wife drove into the town of Radiator Springs that morning. He wanted to know how his youngest daughter had gotten to the little town and if she was alright, since Doc had called him in the middle of night and told him.

As the couple entered Main Street, they saw the original residents, plus some new ones, at Flo's Cafe. They pulled up to a pump and Flo offered them a can of gas to share.

"So, is Amber...?" Strip began.

"Last night," Sheriff began slowly, "I saw that she was being chased by these four Delinquent Road Hazards and that this purple Mitsubishi Eclipse with boost canisters on his back slammed her and sent her into a ditch."

"She was hurt?" asked Mrs. Weathers in a worried voice.

"Yes," said Doc Hudson, who had just driven up, "But I fixed her up."

"She's in one of the Cozy Cones getting some much needed rest after her ordeal," said Sally, "hopefully she's better now this morning."

The old veteran hunkered down lower on his wheels, trying not to think about what he had just been told. Even though he hadn't seen Amber in years, he had spoken to her on the phone listening to her telling him what she had seen and learned on her travels. He now worried about her condition and hoped to Chrysler that she was alright.

Soon, there was the sound of an engine turning over and everyone turned toward the source. The door of one of the Cones opened and out rolled a dark red 1979 Pontiac Trans Am. She turned toward them and drove over to where they were sitting.

"Dad? Mom?" Amber asked quizzically.

"It's us, Honey," replied Mrs. Weathers, a smile on her grill, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Amber rolled around a pump, "Just sore."

The others rolled over to the Trans Am with curiosity written all over their fronts. Amber noticed this and sighed deeply. "You want to know how I ended up getting chased by those four delinquents and crashing into a ditch, don't you?"

The other nodded.

"Alright," said the dark red Trans Am, "It begins like this..."

24 hours earlier...

Amber Weathers has just left her last stop, which was at a big rest stop with a lot a big rigs who were either talking to one another or still sleeping. She had learned alot from some friendly rigs, but had to stay away from the mean ones. They were travelers, like herself, and hauled many different products to and from various places to be used by various cars.

For twenty hours she drove in silence, lost in thought, wondering where she was going to visit next. She barely managed to avoid getting side-swipped by a couple of road delinquents.

"What the..?" she yelped in surprise, "How rude."

Without thinking, Amber sped up after the delinquents. She kept back for a few hours, but held them in her sights. They needed to taught a lesson, and Amber thought that she would be the one to teach them. How wrong she was.

"Hey," one of the delinquents shouted, "That Trans Am has been following us for three hours."

"What!" another demanded and slowed down until he was almost beside Amber, "Who in the heck are you and why are you following us?"

Mustering in all her courage, Amber replied, "You know you're going to hurt someone if you don't drive more carefully."

"So?" replied the purple Mistubishi Eclipse, who didn't like anyone telling him what to do or how to drive.

The others began to flank her, planning on doing something nasty to her. Suddenly, Amber feared for her life and quickly sped off with the four delinquents on her tail. A Nissan Silvia bumped her, hoping to send her off the highway, but Amber was a skillful driver and swept back onto the road, almost going up to 90 mph.

She led them across five counties and ultimately onto I-40 where she took the exit to Route 66. It was dark, but Amber had her headlights on so that she could see at night. She kept on speeding and saw a railway crossing up ahead, with the signal tolling to let cars know that a train was coming. She gunned it and leapt over the crossing just in time to make it across. The Eclipse had also made it across as well and sped after her. His friends were stuck on the other side of a very long train and had to wait until it was gone. That left the Eclipse to continue the chase.

At one point, Amber switched off her headlights, as to make it harder for Boost to see her, but when the others joined the Eclipse, Amber was illuminated by the Nissan's lights.

That's when Boost had slammed into her side, hissing, "Nobody tells us what to do!"

Amber was sent careening into a ditch and losing consciousness. When she woke up next, she found herself inside a doctor's office and meeting Doc Hudson and the others of Radiator Springs.

"...and that's how I ended up here."

"Well, at least I chased them away from you," replied Sheriff.

"Oh, I'm glad you're alright, Amber," said Mrs. Weathers after she heard her daughters story, "but don't you ever do something as stupid as that ever again."

"Sorry, Mom," Amber replied guiltily. Her parents nuzzled her.

Amber decided to take up residence in Radiator Springs. She thought that this was a pleasant little town with nice folk who cared about each other. She managed to persuade her parents to stay as well, since her father was retired from the racing circuit.

But, she couldn't help wonder about the Delinquent Road Hazards who had chased her last night. Would they be back to do more harm to her? She expressed her fears to Sheriff, who promised to keep a sharp lookout for them.

_They could have just told me to leave them alone,_ Amber thought to herself, _and I would've done it. How can telling them to drive carefully make them so angry with me?_


	3. Chapter 3

**Of Rain and Thunderstorms**

by Firebird (FireSaturn)

DISCLAIMER: Cars do not belong to me, but are the property of Pixar Disney. Amber Weathers, Tony Blitz, and Sapphire Sky are my characters.

**CHAPTER THREE**

A very loud rumble woke Amber from her dream. She stared out of her window and was surprised to see the purple Mitsubishi Eclipse known as Boost pull into Flo's. He was a mess and missing one of his boost canisters. Something must have happened to him to cause him to come all the way here, but Amber didn't know what it was.

She was curious and rolled out of the Cozy Cone and approached the tuner carefully. Now up close, she could see the amount of damage Boost had sustained which included not only the missing canister, but torn sides, and a crack in his spoiler.

"What happened?" she asked.

The tuner rolled around to face her. Even his eyes looked pained, as if he was still hurting from whatever had caused him this damage.

"Amber?" he inquired in a tired voice.

"Yeah," the Trans Am acknowledged, "So what happened? You look like you've been through a grinder or something."

"It's a long story," Boost replied.

"What is _he_ doing here?" snapped an angry voice.

Lightning McQueen, resident racecar of Radiator Spring, drove up and parked himself in a position to face Boost. He looked angry. After all, it was Boost and his gang of tuners that lulled Mack to sleep and caused McQueen to become separated and almost getting killed on the Interstate.

"Ease up, McQueen," said Amber sternly. Suddenly, she felt very protective of Boost with no idea why.

With difficulty and a bit of coxing and support from Amber, Boost began to tell his story. He had just arrived at his home to find a couple of dark colored cars parked in the driveway. One of them glared maliciously while the other had a sort of suave look about him.

They asked if he was Boost, and when the tuner acknowledged that he was, the silent car flanked him. Boost asked what they wanted with him and the answer was that they were looking for someone, particularly a pretty red Trans Am. It suddenly struck him that the Trans Am that these "thugs" were talking about was non other than the one that he himself had forced into a ditch.

Boost tried to say that he knows of no Trans Am anywhere nor has he ever met one meeting the description that he was given. The silent car rammed him so hard that it knocked loose one of his boost canisters.

The tuner began to back away, hoping that he had enough time to speed back to Route 66 to give the warning. He was rammed again, causing him pain.

He had driven for hours, still afraid that he might be followed by the thugs. Finally realizing that he was not relieved his fears. He took the next exit and eventually found his way to Radiator Springs on this morning.

All the time that Amber had been listening to this story, her eyes began to widen in disbelief and a returning fear that she thought that she had put behind her forever.

"No, it can't be," she said finally.

"What?" both McQueen and Boost asked at the same time.

She sighed, "An old ex-boyfriend I used to date in high school. His name was Tony Blitz and at the time, I had fallen in love with him. But, after we graduated from high school and college, he became more controlling almost to the point of abuse. So, one day, while Tony was off somewhere doing whatever he was doing for most of the day, I left, never looking back on that part of my life. He must have been mad that I had left and probably tried to track me. Tony is one of the reasons that I travel around alot. I try not to stay in one place for too long, but only for a few hours or so."

Both the racecar and the tuner looked at Amber in bewilderment and surprise.

"How can he find you so fast?" asked McQueen.

"I don't know," answered Amber sadly.

"I think he must have found out about our encounter on the highway the other night," said Boost, "and figured it was me who did most of the damage."

"So that's why you came here," Amber, despite the news, smiled at the tuner, "to warn me."

"Yeah," agreed Boost, "I did."

Just then as the others were coming up for breakfast at Flo's, Boost passed out from the pain. With a little persuasion from Amber and McQueen, Doc Hudson took the injured tuner to his clinic to get fixed up. Amber turned to the others and retold the story that Boost had told her and McQueen.

_What would happen if Tony found Radiator Springs?_ she thought fearfully, _What will he do to my newfound friends? I hope that doesn't happen anytime soon._


	4. Chapter 4

**Of Rain and Thunderstorms**  
by Firebird (FireSaturn)

DISCLAIMER: Cars, its plot, setting, and characters are not mine, but belongs to Pixar Disney. Sapphire Sky, Amber Weathers, Tony Blitz, and Donny belong to me.

**CHAPTER FOUR**

"Ah, so this is where she has ended up, eh?" a 1997 black Toyota Supra mused with a sly grin on his front.

The silent Ford Explorer sitting next to the Supra nodded without speaking. His name was Donny and he was the head henchcar of Tony Blitz, a well-known and dangerous drug-lord from New York.

"Look at this place, Donny," said Blitz as he rolled as close to the cliff edge as he dared, "This little, measly dump that these residents call Radiator Springs is defenseless. No one can stand up to me."

Again, the Explorer nodded silently.

"And Amber, my poor, dear Amber, is cooped up here," Tony cooed in mock sympathy, "She is mine and will forever be mine. I will kill the first car who ever gets in my way."

Meanwhile, in town, Amber was pacing restlessly in front of Flo's while the other cars watched her anxiously. They were just as worried as she was. If her ex-boyfriend came, they feared what he might do, since Amber had explained how vicious Tony was to her.

"Hon," said Flo finally, "you're gonna a wear a hole in the pavement if you don't stop that."

The Pontiac Trans Am stopped and looked apologetically at the show car-turned-business owner. She smiled and rolled up to sit between Boost and Sapphire.

"I know," replied Amber, "I'm sorry, Flo. It's just that I'm afraid of what Tony will do if he finds me here and what will happen to you guys if you get in his way."

"If I ever get my wheels on Tony again," growled Sapphire, "I won't be so lenient with him, like I was last time."

A silky, baritone-like laugh floated over. Everyone turned and saw two black vehicles making their way slowly over to Flo's Diner. Sapphire and Amber recognized them to Tony Blitz and Donny.

"Lenient?" laughed Tony, "Please, Julia. You were never lenient with me. You've caused me alot of pain and suffering last time and I will not go through that again."

Sapphire glowered. She hasn't heard anyone call her by her family name in years after she took on the moniker of Sapphire Sky to be able to make it in the racing world in which she was now a professional racer.

"You're not welcome here, Tony," she told the Supra.

Tony laughed again and rolled up to where Amber was parked by one of the pumps. Boost tried to roll forward, but when he saw the Ford Explorer glower at him, he retreated behind Doc Hudson. He didn't want to get banged up as badly as he had been the other day.

"Since when have I ever been unwelcome in a cozy little town as this?" Tony asked, then turned to the Trans Am, "Ah, Amber. You don't know how much anguish and worry you have caused me when you left our happy home in Upstate New York. Come back with me and me can renew our relationship as we had enjoyed it before."

"I'm not going anywhere with you, Tony," replied Amber defiantly, "You've hurt me too much to make me ever want to go back to be abused again."

"Abuse you?" Tony feined shock, "You think I have abused you? This must've come from that silly little imagination of yours."

Amber gasped and slowly began to back away. An angry roar of a racecar engine stopped him. Sapphire was growling and stalking toward Tony.

"You touch my sister and I'll..." she warned with a dangerous roar of her engine.

"Or you'll what?" Tony challenged the racecar.

"I'm too smart to fall for that, Tony," Sapphire said, "Besides, I can trounce you again if I wanted to. But I won't. So how about a little race instead. See if you can best a professional racecar."

"That sounds like a challenge," Tony smiled, "Where and when?"

"Willy's Butte. At noon. Be there."

"That is a promise," replied Tony as he turned around, signalling for Donny to follow him out of Radiator Springs to wait for the appointed time.

After a moment of silence, the others turned to Sapphire, surprised at what she had just done.

"Why did you do that?" Sheriff was the first one to ask the question that was everyone's minds.

"I've had some challenges before," replied Sapphire, "Mostly from Chick Hicks. Tony doesn't even compare to my rival on the racetrack and makes Chick sound like and angel."

"But this race isn't going to held at Willy's Butte, not at one of those motor speedways where the Piston Cup is always held," Doc Hudson explained, "Can you race on dirt?"

"Sure. I did it in Hazzard County with General Lee," replied Sapphire, a smile appearing on her grill, "I even learned a few tricks from him."

"I heard Dad mention General Lee before during one of our phone conversations," said Amber, "He was the one who pushed you across the finish line right after Chick made you crash."

Sapphire nodded. She still remembered that horrible wreck that Chick had forced her to endure. General Lee had gently pushed her across the finish line as she was too badly damaged to do it herself. His kind eyes, soft smile, and drawling baritone voice was what she remembered the most about General Lee Duke.

It was noon. A hot summer day. Everyone was gathered at Willy's Butte to watch the race between Sapphire and Tony. Sapphire let Luigi and Guido be her cheerleaders of sorts, bringing their Ferrari memoriabilia along with them.

The rules were simple. As Sheriff explained to the two contenders, they will go around Willy's Butte in five laps (just to make it interesting) and the first one to finish the last lap and crosses the makeshift finish line wins. The loser has to leave Radiator Springs forever and never come back. Everyone cheered for Sapphire.

"On-a your marks," called Luigi excitedly, "Get set! Go!"

With the wave of the flag, the two cars roared off around the dirt track. Sapphire took the slope easily, countersteering without any serious problems.

"Who knew Sapphire knew how to countersteer," Lightning comments from audience row.

Tony was having a harder time at it, but he pulled through, managing to returned to the track the same time Sapphire did and both were racing fender to fender. The sharp turn left was quickly coming up and Sapphire tried the turn right to go left trick that she had seen Lightning do at her father's last race. Tony slowed down a little so he could take the curve without skidding off an incline and into a cactus patch. Everyone wished that he would somehow be thrown into the cactus patch sooner or later.

The four other laps went the same way as the first one without a hitch. At one point Tony tried to slam Sapphire, but she quickly got out of his way.

"You race like Chick Hicks," Sapphire called behind her.

"Who in the heck is Chick Hicks?" demanded the angry Supra.

"Oh, just someone I know," snickered the racecar.

Tony growled and stared after Sapphire's retreating form. This time he wasn't looking where he was driving and skidded off the incline and into the cactus patch. Laughter floated over from the spectators.

Cheers erupted suddenly, telling Tony that he had lost the race and that Sapphire had won. The Supra tried to reverse from the cactus patch, but it was no use. He was stuck. Shortly, a tow hook latched onto his back bumper, startling him. He was fished out backwards by the tow truck named Mater.

Thoroughly humiliated by the racecar, Tony and his henchcar, Donny, slunk out of Radiator Springs an hour later and left Ornament Valley and Route 66 behind forever, like he had promised before the race. He was never heard from again.

"Thanks for standing up for me, Sis," Amber approached Sapphire, who was sitting at the start line at Willy's Butte later that day.

"Hey, you're my kid sister," replied Sapphire, "I wouldn't want anything bad happen to you. I love you too much to see you get hurt by that loser."

Amber nuzzled her sister's fender. "I love you too, Sapphire."

The two sisters sat in silence for a moment, watching the sunset announce the end of the day. Amber thought of something. She turned toward the racecar.

"Hey, do you think that someday I might get to meet General Lee?" asked Amber, "From what you said about him, he sounds like very nice car."

"He is," replied Sapphire, "come to Hazzard County with me someday and I'll introduce you to him."

Again, there was silence.

"What about you're relationship with Junior?" Amber looked at her sister with a serious expression on her face.

"Oh, Junior and I are just friends, that's all," replied the racer, "We do sometimes help each other on the track or instigate a friendly rivalry, but other than that, our relationship hasn't gone far enough to make us more than best friends."

"Oh," sighed the Trans Am.

"Something up, Amber?" asked Sapphire, concerned for her sister.

"Um, you know Boost, right?" Amber decided to get this over with.

"He's that import tuner that shoved you into a ditch," Sapphire quickly guessed what her sister was implying, "You like him? Isn't he a little too young for you?"

"I know it sounds strange, but the day he arrived in Radiator Springs all torn and banged up, I felt, I dunno, sympathy for him, I guess," Amber explained, "He was the one who came and warned me about Tony. That was really considerate of him to do that, in my book."

"I hafta agree with that," said the racer.

Silence again.

Ya know," Sapphire said playfully to Amber, "it's been years since we last played together. What do ya say, a little race around Willy's Butte. Loser buys breakfast at Flo's tomorrow."

You're on," Amber zoomed off.

"Heh heh," Sapphire chuckled and raced after her sister.

**The End**


End file.
